Police arrest mason over arson

Suhum, April 2, GNA - A 52-year-old-Mason, Alexandar Amankwa, had been placed in police custody at Suhum on Wednesday for allegedly setting fire to destroy the property of his brother, Mr Brown Amponsah, a businessman.

A Police source told the Ghana News Agency that, Mr Amponsah and Amankwa live at Suhum and that Mr Amponsah owed a beer bar and had employed a sales boy, one Yaw Sakyi.

The source said Mr Amponsah, who works in Tema, planted palm trees around the bar.

It said on March 23, this year, Amankwa visited the bar with some workers to fell some of the palm trees to distill "akpeteshie" but the sales boy refused to allow him to do so until he had obtained permission from the brother.

This developed into a misunderstanding between the two, during which Amankwa left to the house after ordering his men to fell the palm trees.

He returned to find that the men had fell four of the trees but he asked them to fell more of the trees and left the scene again despite protests from the sales boy.

The sources said not quite long, people near Mr Amponsah's house heard Amankwa shouting for help that his brother's house was on fire and the people managed to put off the fire after over an hour but Amankwa was said to have escaped during the period.

It said some of the items destroyed in Mr Amponsah's room included a refrigerator, a television set, electrical gadgets, furniture, a mattress, radio sets and personal effects estimated at over 50 million cedis. Amankwa who went into hiding was later arrested.